This last weekend, I was privileged to attend the second annual milblogging conference. (Shouldn't it be a milblogger conference? After all, it isn't a gathering of milbloggings) As was the case last time, I had a fantastic time indulging my need to talk at great length about nearly anything. My wife, who has heard everything I have to say about most things, no longer sees the value in listening anymore; and so a captive audience of people who also feel the need to talk at length about nearly anything is Buckethead heaven. Which is proof, I guess, of the old saying about one man’s heaven being another one’s hell.
And this time, there was plenty to talk about, and, of course, much beer to be drunk. The festivities started with what Blackfive referred to as the “Pre-Cock.” We gathered at Arlington’s legendary Car Pool before the official Cocktail hour and reception. I was greatly pleased that Steve Schippert of Threatswatch was able to attend, despite needing to return home on Saturday for personal reasons. Steve is a fantastic guy, and only a little silly when inebriated. Many others were there as well – the aforementioned Blackfive, Princess Cat, Mike of USAA, Kevin, Noah Shachtman (now at Wired) and a few others who, while significant and entertaining individuals in their own right, have slipped through the cracks of my memory.
Moving over to the Cocktail Festivities, I hooked up with Murdoc and his wife, down from Michigan, and met his longtime companion commenter AW1 Tim. Jon of Aaaarrggghhh was there handing out prizes (though none for me) and various and sundry other bloggers. Rob the fast squirrel was there, and good company.
After attempting to eat fajitas in a room with no tables, and spending $7 for Heineken, we went back to Carpool. At this point, we lost a few people, but Noonan from Op-For, Threatswatch Steve, me, Cat, Rachelle, Scott (great guy, but he likes sleep more than beer – can we trust him?) Blackfive, Murdoc and a couple others kept going. While I did not drink as much as I did on the Friday before the last conference, I did put down a few and a nice glass of the Macallan, and things got kinda hazy.
Went back and crashed at Cat’s and slept on the couch while she and Rachelle slept together. Is that hospitality? I think not.
Bright and early the next morning, we got to the conference just in time to miss the President address the conference. I have to say that I missed a lot of the panels – if I sat down I started getting sleepy no matter how interesting the speakers – and there were some interesting speakers indeed. But I had been short on sleep Thursday night, and only got a couple hours the night before. Adapting my strategy, I generally spent most of the day outside the conference room, talking to the other attendees in smaller groups.
Had a fascinating conversation with the Armed Liberal of Winds of Change and Bill Roggio from the Fourth Rail, and at one point Bill turned to me after I said something and allowed that, “You’re awfully smart for a guy named Buckethead.” I still don’t know quite how to take that, but the sentence had the word ‘smart’ in it so I’ll count that a compliment. And Noonan is not the spare. Or so I have been told.
A big topic of discussion both in and out of the panels was of course the recent Army directive that all military bloggers must get all posts approved by chain of command. It seems that there are two currents in the Army – one which wants to use the milbloggers to aid it in getting information out into the world, “winning the information war” and another group that is operating not on a Web 2.0 basis, but rather a 50s era corporate Web -.5 basis. You can’t win, really, in keeping information contained. It’s damn near impossible in this new world we’ve created. What you can do is compete in an information ecosystem, and attempt to get your ideas, and your points of view respected. That seems to be the consensus, and milbloggers (and I am truly not really one of them, except in spirit) feel that they have a key part to play in that effort. I believe they are right. Bill Roggio, for example, is a one man counterexample to the idea that only major media outlets can provide comprehensive coverage of the war – this guy doesn’t just comment on the news, he is an active producer of it.
Noah Shachtman offered himself up for sacrifice in his panel, by defending the MSM. This was not an audience predisposed to think kindly of the “regular” media. You should have seen people rushing to the microphones to argue. Noah was right, though, there isn’t a conspiracy. But there is ignorance – and though Noah said that milblogs are a perfect resource for mainstream media, I don’t really see a lot of evidence that they are making use of it.
That was one of the things that I was talking about later with several people – in any instance where you have seen reporting on a topic with which you are intimately familiar, have you ever seen them get it right? Ever? And what makes you think that they get anything else right?
In the course of some of those conversations I also met American Soldier and Army Girl – active duty soldiers who are also active bloggers. They are approaching the problems of blogging while on active duty differently – AS is anonymous, while Army Girl must deal with her chain of command. Fascinating discussions, and both were great people to talk to. of Soldier’s Angels (and Vivienne) were both charming. Vivienne kept wanting me to pick up toys, which I was happy to do on a part time basis, but my Jocelyn has a prior claim.
At lunch, we had a presentation from Soldier’s Angels, a truly fantastic group that works with injured soldiers coming back from Iraq and elsewhere. If you are looking for a good cause to donate to, or really even if you aren’t – throw some money their way. They do incredible work. The highlight of the lunch was Chuck Ziegenfuss, a soldier who was wounded severely in Iraq. The guy is an amazing speaker – he told the story of how, after he was wounded, Soldier’s Angels helped him by (among many other kindnesses) getting him a laptop, and how that grew into Project Valour IT, which has now raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase laptops for other injured servicemen and women. Besides being a hero and orator, Chuck is wonderfully profane and wicked funny. I was honored to meet him. Second best quote of the weekend came from him:
"Chuck, did you watch the DNC debates?"
"No, If I want to watch retards fight, I'll throw a bag of candy under the short bus"
After all the official events wound down, we retired to the lounge. There, I met McQ and Jon Henke; current and former members of Q and O. I had a blast talking to both over the course of the rest of the evening as we wended our way though the hotel bar, to PFChangs, and back to the hotel. Also met Lex, who does an excellent Irish accent while drunk. For all I know he may do an excellent sober Irish accent, but I never saw him sober. And no one has seen the Irish sober. Spent some quality time talking to (and smoking with) Jacki, who is not a blogger though she probably should be. (Remember, it’s not about fractals…)
Who else? Tammi, Chuck’s wife Carren, Laurie from Soldier’s Angels, Homefront Six all the way from Hawaii – we had a great time talking early Sunday morning while Lex sobered up, that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. I’ll have to call Cat and start asking, “Who was the one guy…” to fill in the rest.
Last weekend was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time. Spending two days in the presence of a crapload of highly intelligent, motivated and articulate people is inspiring. For those who, unlike myself, are inspirable anyway. Thanks to Andi for putting it all together.
And despite my description, it was not all about drinking. People who have done incredible work – the Soldier’s Angels, and everyone who has helped them – were honored. There was a lot of good discussion amongst the bloggers of course, but there were non bloggers there who, I think, got an earful – hopefully a useful one. And making new friends is never wasted.
Can’t wait for next year.
on
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